The Deschner Award

The Deschner Award is a cash award presented every other year to an outstanding professor on the SMU faculty whose teaching integrates knowledge concerning women into his or her field of study.

Criteria

Excellent teaching in any SMU course offered for academic credit at any level, in any subject, so long as the instructor has meaningfully and significantly integrated material about one or more of the following topics into the course: women as a social group; gender (that is, the social meanings of femininity and masculinity); and/or sexual orientation.

Eligibility

The instructor of any SMU course that you have taken for academic credit in any semester, so long as the instructor is currently teaching at SMU.

Exception: Dr. Joci Caldwell-Ryan, the award winner for 2011-12, is ineligible for another award until 2016.

Judges

The final decision is made by a committee of the Women's Studies Council, consisting of students, staff, and faculty. This decision is based on student nominations.

Nominations

Any SMU student at any level may nominate a faculty member for a Deschner Award. Submit nominations by email to womnstud@smu.edu. Please put DESCHNER in the subject line.

Explain why the instructor you name deserves to win the award, and for what course(s). Your nomination need not be long, but must offer some concrete detail making clear the reason for your nomination. One paragraph will suffice, but write as much as you like. Simply naming the person does not provide the selection committee with enough information.